The Eyes of a Child
by Maria Haruka Takino
Summary: This story looks back on what really might have happened after Mayu injured her leg as a child. After Mayu forms a bond with a potential enemy, the story goes to present time. While in the lost village, Mio discovers a horrifying secret about Mayu...
1. Introduction

The Eyes of a Child  
  
A FFII story  
  
~*~  
  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any portion of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly or any of its characters.  
  
INTRODUCTION~*  
  
"Hurry up! Remember Mommy said she would make suama for us?"  
  
"Yes, I remember, but couldn't you slow down just a little? I can't run as fast as you!"  
  
"Come on, you're so slow, Mayu!"  
  
"Mio, wait for me!"  
  
"Hurry up, come on!"  
  
"Mio, wait for me! I can't catch up to you!"  
  
"Why not? You can run faster than that!"  
  
"Mio, please! Don't leave me behind!"  
  
"Ha ha ha! You'll have to run faster!"  
  
"Mio, really, wait!"  
  
"Run faster!"  
  
"Mio—AAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!"  
  
".......Mayu?"  
  
Mayu lay unconscious at the bottom of the ravine where they had been running. 


	2. Lost Girl

The Eyes of a Child  
  
A FFII story  
  
~*~  
  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any portion of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly or any of its characters.  
  
CHAPTER ONE: LOST GIRL~*  
  
Mio ran faster. She had to get her mother's help. Mayu had slipped and fallen.  
  
Running through the forest on that chilled autumn day, Mio wondered why Mayu hadn't gotten up after she fell. Mio always got up after she fell down, and Mio was younger than Mayu. Maybe I'm just more grown-up than Mayu is, Mio thought.  
  
Mayu's dream was strange. She saw two girls, older than she. They were running, running and telling each other to hurry. Then, one of them slipped and fell. The other one just kept running, even though the girl who had fallen was calling to her twin, "Wait! Wait, come back! Don't leave me, Yae!"  
  
Mayu's eyes opened. She could not feel her leg from her knee down to her toes. Where was Mio? Mayu found that she could not walk to search for her sister. She began to cry.  
  
"Why are you crying?" said a voice from behind.  
  
"I hurt my leg and now I can't walk," Mayu said, trying to look up and see the owner of the voice.  
  
"It's okay. I saw what happened. Your sister left you all alone, didn't she?" said the voice softly.  
  
"Yeah, she did. I want her to come back. I know she will. She wouldn't leave me here..." said Mayu, thinking.  
  
"My sister and I were running once, but then I fell, and she left me forever..." said the girl, her voice trailing off.  
  
"Did you ever see her again?" Mayu asked, her eyes shining.  
  
"No, I didn't," said the voice in a sort of hiss.  
  
"That's sad," Mayu replied, frowning.  
  
There was a pause.  
  
"Do you think you could help me up?" Mayu asked. However, her only response was silence. The girl had gone.  
  
Mayu suddenly heard footsteps.  
  
"Oh, Mayu honey, are you alright?" It was Mommy.  
  
"Mommy, I fell and hurt my leg really bad!" said Mayu. Remembering her pain, she began to cry again.  
  
The lost girl was forgotten. 


	3. Permanent

The Eyes of a Child  
  
A FFII story  
  
~*~  
  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any portion of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly or any of its characters.  
  
CHAPTER TWO: PERMANENT~*  
  
"Mayu, I'm so glad you can walk a little now," said Mio softly. A few months had passed, and by now, Mayu's leg was a little better. She could walk on it, though it was painful.  
  
"Mayu sweetie, do you need anything?" asked Shizuka Amakura, checking in on her daughter.  
  
"No, mommy, I'm fine," said Mayu, then, she added, "Well, actually, I could use some suama and warm milk with honey!"  
  
"Get some for me, too, mommy! Me too!" called Mio.  
  
Shizuka laughed. "Alright, alright, I'll go get you both some." With that, Shizuka left the twins alone in their shared bedroom.  
  
"Mayu, I'm sorry I ran too fast," said Mio suddenly, tears stinging her young eyes.  
  
Mayu was rather startled by her younger twin's sudden guilt. "It's okay, my leg will be all better soon and then we can race in a safer place."  
  
Mio instantly brightened at her sister's optimism. "Okay, but when we do, you better run fast, because I'm probably going to win!" Mio laughed, poking her sister. The two of them giggled, as little children often do.  
  
"Nope, I'm gonna win this time!" said Mayu, poking her sister in return. They giggled and poked and poked and giggled, telling each other who was going to win their future race.  
  
Meanwhile, Shizuka listened outside the door. She smiled. She, too, could not wait until Mayu's leg was well again.  
  
Just as Shizuka was about to pick up the tray of food for her children, the phone rang.  
  
"Hello?" Shizuka spoke into the mouth piece.  
  
"Hello, Miss Amakura. This is Dr. Gakusha. I called regarding the injury of your daughter, Mayu. We've looked at the x-rays and we're afraid that Mayu will be permanently injured, and will have a limp the rest of her life," said the deep voice of the male doctor.  
  
Shizuka closed her eyes for a moment and listened to the giggling of her daughters. "I'm going to win in our race!" they kept telling each other. There will be no race if Mayu's leg does not get well, thought Shizuka. A few tears fell down her cheeks.  
  
"Miss Amakura, are you still there?" asked Dr. Gakusha.  
  
"Yes, I apologize," replied Shizuka.  
  
"Well, the other nurses, doctors and I can't tell you how sorry we are that there is nothing we can do for your daughter," Dr. Gakusha droned. When Shizuka did not reply, he continued on, "There may also be times when your daughter feels a random pain in her leg. This pain is also permanent and we do not have any treatments for it."  
  
"Okay," said Shizuka in a wavering voice. Then she said, in nearly a whisper, "Sayonara," and hung up the phone.  
  
Her daughters were still giggling. Wiping the tears off her face, Shizuka brought the tray to Mio and Mayu.  
  
"Yummy!" Mio jumped up. "Thank you, Mommy," Mio and Mayu said in unison. Then they giggled again.  
  
Mio tasted the warm honey milk and it was delicious. Mayu also thought so. Then they tasted the deliciously homemade suama, and it was a very sweet Japanese candy. They talked while they ate.  
  
"Mayu, did it hurt really bad when you fell?" asked Mio as she sipped her milk.  
  
"Not really. I barely felt it!" Mayu said. This was partly true, because at first Mayu truly couldn't feel her leg. But about the time Mio and Mommy arrived, her leg had begun to hurt. Not wanting to talk about the incident, Mayu quickly changed the subject. "Did Mommy look kinda sad when she put down our tray of suama and honey milk?"  
  
Mio paused, recalling her mother's expression. "I don't know. Maybe she was thinking about Daddy again."  
  
"Yeah, maybe..." 


	4. Secret Friend

The Eyes of a Child  
  
A FFII story  
  
~*~  
  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any portion of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly or any of its characters.  
  
CHAPTER THREE: SECRET FRIEND~*  
  
"Time for bed, girls!" called Shizuka, walking into their bedroom. Mio groaned; she was always full of energy and didn't feel the least bit sleepy. Mayu, however, felt quite drained.  
  
Mio climbed into the bed across the room from her sister's bed. Mayu had been in bed pretty much all day, yet she still felt tired.  
  
"Goodnight, my enzeru Mio, and my enzeru Mayu," said Shizuka as she kissed them both on the forehead, then shut off the light and left the room.  
  
Despite her large quantity of energy, Mio was the first to fall asleep. Mayu stayed awake, thinking back to two months ago, when she had slipped and fallen...this made her suddenly remember that girl who had spoken to her...  
  
It was almost as if the girl had heard Mayu's thoughts, because suddenly, the girl was at Mayu's window, peering in at her.  
  
"Hello," said the girl in her soft, delicate voice.  
  
This was the first time Mayu had really gotten a good look at the girl's face. Her skin was a ghostly white, and she had dark, shadowed eyes with black, straight bangs hanging in front of them. In fact, she sort of made Mayu think of an older version of herself.  
  
"Hi," Mayu said, smiling.  
  
"How is your leg?" asked the girl.  
  
"It's okay. It hurts a lot, though," Mayu said quietly, not wishing to wake Mio.  
  
"I'm sorry I couldn't visit you for a long time. I had...things to...do..." the girl said rather mistily.  
  
"It's okay. I'm just glad you're here now," Mayu said smiling. Mayu felt a strange source of comfort whenever the girl was around. She also felt happier.  
  
"How come your sister didn't come back for you when you fell?" Mayu asked suddenly.  
  
The girl seemed hesitant to answer, but Mayu knew she was still there.  
  
"I'm.....not really sure," said the girl in a distant voice. "I asked her not to leave me...but she kept running...."  
  
Mayu suddenly had a vision of her dream, the one she had had when she fell. The two girls running...one of them looked exactly like the girl that was at her window. The other one looked like an older version of Mio. Suddenly, a frightening thought came to Mayu's mind...  
  
Mio will leave me.  
  
Mayu snapped out of her vision with a gasp. She could no longer feel the girl's presence. Once again, she had left.  
  
Mayu drifted off to sleep. In her dreams, the girl called to Mayu, asking, "Will you be my secret friend? When you are with me, you will never have to worry about anything in the world. I will take away your worries, and I will be one with you..."  
  
"Yes! I will be your secret friend and we can be one with each other..." Mayu called back.  
  
"Then follow me, to our own little village! It is just for us, a beautiful place where we can have lots of fun forever!" called the girl.  
  
"How will I recognize you?" called Mayu.  
  
"I will be a pretty red butterfly! Follow me, follow me!" cried the girl in a voice thick with happiness.  
  
"When will I see you?" said Mayu, pursuing a red butterfly in front of her on a foggy forest trail.  
  
"Always look for me, Mayu, always..." called the girl's voice as it began to fade.  
  
Whispers of the words, "secret friends...," "one with you....," "pretty red butterfly...," and "...our own village!" remained in Mayu's mind until she awoke the next morning. 


	5. Crimson Butterfly

The Eyes of a Child  
  
A FFII story  
  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any portion of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly or any of its characters.  
  
CHAPTER FOUR: CRIMSON BUTTERFLY  
  
Mayu awoke that morning and thought about her dream. It had been so odd...but the most prominent thing that she remembered was the girl telling her to always look for a red butterfly. Mayu, recalling what the butterfly looked like, had found that it was a deep red color, a crimson color. It was very pretty, too. It had a sort of bright, red glow around it as it had flown in front of her....  
  
"Mayu honey! Come down and join your sister for breakfast!" called Shizuka from downstairs. Mio's bed was empty, so she was downstairs, too.  
  
All Mayu could think about during breakfast was that crimson butterfly and the girl. Mayu had forgotten parts of her dream, so she could not remember why the girl had wanted Mayu to follow the crimson butterfly....was it something about a secret village...?  
  
After Mio and Mayu had finished, they went outside to play. Mayu's walking had gotten better, and she could walk around more, though she preferred to sit.  
  
"Hey Mayu, look at the pretty butterfly that landed on my hand!" Mio called after a couple minutes of picking flowers in the yard.  
  
Mayu's head turned faster than a whip. She looked at Mio's hand.  
  
It was the crimson butterfly from her dream.  
  
Suddenly, Mio began to shriek. Her hand had begun to bleed where the butterfly's soft, delicate feet where placed on the back of Mio's hand.  
  
"GET IT OFF ME!!!" Mio shrieked, tears streaming down her face. The blood frightened her; she shook her hand so violently that one would think she may have dislocated her arm from its socket. The butterfly clung to the back of her hand.  
  
"SOMEBODY PLEASE GET IT OFF MY HAND!! MY HAND IS GETTING ALL BLOODY!!" Mio screamed louder, her face turning red and blotchy as she screamed and cried. She looked at the red butterfly with the utmost terror as she continued to shake her hand and shriek.  
  
Mayu simply stared. Suddenly, an involuntary smile crept across her face. She watched Mio, crying in fear to anyone who would listen, and yet, Mayu stood there, her very own sister....  
  
....and smiled.  
  
Shizuka had been thinking sadly about Mayu's permanent injury, when she heard Mio's screams of pain and fear.  
  
"I'M COMING, I'M COMING!!" yelled Shizuka, rushing out the door to help her screaming child.  
  
Shizuka ran faster than wind, her heart filled with fear for her daughters. When she finally reached Mio, she was lying on the ground, curled up and crying, as a strange, glowing red butterfly floated away with the soft breeze under its wings. 


	6. The Butterfly's Lead

The Eyes of a Child  
  
A FFII story  
  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any portion of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly or any of its characters.  
  
CHAPTER FIVE: THE BUTTERFLY'S LEAD  
  
"Mayu, please talk to us! Tell Mommy what happened!" cried Shizuka, staring at Mayu with pleading eyes.  
  
Mio sat on her bed with Shizuka next to her. Mio now had a scar across her hand. Bandages covered the wound, and Shizuka had her arms around her terrified daughter.  
  
Something more had happened. When the butterfly was clinging to Mio's hand, a rush of frightening images had run through her mind. The strange images and voices were burned into Mio's mind; she could not stop thinking about them, no matter how hard she tried.  
  
Mio could not find her voice to speak and tell her mother what had happned. But then, neither could Mayu.  
  
Why did I smile? Mayu wondered. Why did I smile at my sister and do nothing when I knew she was afraid?  
  
Mayu felt so strange. She felt like someone had taken away her personality and switched it with someone who was insane. It was a frightening feeling.  
  
All three Amakuras wanted this whole thing to disappear.  
  
Mayu did not know what to say. Mio did not know what to say. Shizuka did not know what to say.  
  
And suddenly, there it was.  
  
The crimson butterfly.  
  
Fluttering right outside the window.  
  
Mio and Shizuka looked at where Mayu was staring. Mio began to scream.  
  
"IT'S COME BACK! IT'S GOING TO GET ME AGAIN!" Mio shrieked, tears streaming down her face.  
  
"It's okay, it's okay!" yelled Shizuka, trying to control her daughter as she thrashed around aimlessly in fear.  
  
Mayu simply walked towards the window in a sort of daze. There was just something about that butterfly that took away her worries and made her feel light and free.  
  
Mayu could hear Mio screaming her name, "MAYU! DON'T GO NEAR IT!!" but Mayu ignored her sister's pleas. Her voice sounded distant, so far away....  
  
Mayu opened the window and climbed out.  
  
The butterfly led her far away from the house and into the forest.  
  
"Where are you taking me?" asked Mayu in a misty and unusually high voice.  
  
The girl's voice answered. "I am going to show you our secret village, where we will have fun forever."  
  
Mayu's eyes were frozen on the butterfly. She could not look away. She had to follow the butterfly; it seemed like following the butterfly was all Mayu could do or see or think about. Nothing else.  
  
Mayu continued to follow the butterfly in a trance, thinking of nothing else but hazy voices and shadowed figures in her mind, when suddenly—  
  
—someone grabbed her shoulder.  
  
Mayu snapped back to the real world with a jolt; for a second, everything around her spun, and there she was, in the bright sunlit forest, with Mio's hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Where were you going?" Mio asked. Her cheeks were tearstained and the fear was visible in her small eyes.  
  
Mayu felt tears welling up in her eyes. She couldn't understand. Where HAD she been going?  
  
"I don't know..." Mayu whispered faintly, tears dripping off her cheeks. "I just don't know." 


	7. Sae's Vow

The Eyes of a Child  
  
A FFII story  
  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any portion of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly or any of its characters.  
  
CHAPTER SIX: SAE'S VOW  
  
Shizuka sat quietly as Mio and Mayu contemplated what their mother had just said. The twins had found their way out of the forest, but only to find horrible news waiting for them at home.  
  
"I know this wasn't the best time to tell you," Shizuka said hoarsely, "but I had to tell you at some point."  
  
Mayu simply stared at the floor. She didn't know what to say.  
  
Mio felt her throat tighten and her eyes well up with tears. She squeezed her sister's tiny hand, and they both began to cry.  
  
Mayu's injury was permanent.  
  
Her leg would never get better.  
  
So Mio and Mayu cried.  
  
The girl watched.  
  
The twins went to bed after a few hours of crying together.  
  
Mayu woke up in the morning all tangled in her sheets and sweating. Had she had a nightmare? She could not remember.  
  
No one else was awake. It was misty outside. Misty and cold.  
  
Mayu dressed and went outside. The cool, foggy air felt good after being in a hot bed all night long.  
  
Mayu looked around. Birds flew low overhead, their chirps and caws echoing in the misty forest. Wet droplets from the air clung to Mayu's clothes and skin. Dewdrops formed on the petals of flowers and blades of grass.  
  
Everything was suddenly quiet.  
  
The birds stopped chirping. The wind stopped blowing. Nothing moved. Everything held its breath and held on to this silent moment.  
  
Startled, Mayu looked around. Why did the noise stop? she wondered. Mayu's eyes continued to wonder around the yard and over at the forest.  
  
The crimson butterfly had caused the sudden stillness.  
  
It rested on the trunk of a tree on the edge of the forest. It fluttered its wings now and then while everything else around it remained still.  
  
Mayu looked at it. She stared at it for a long time. The butterfly had stilled Mayu, too.  
  
Then, the butterfly vanished, and before the trunk of the tree appeared the girl. She was dressed in a white kimono with red stains on it. To Mayu, they looked like they might have been ketchup stains.  
  
"Hello again, Mayu," said the girl in her softest voice.  
  
Mayu smiled and waved. "Hello."  
  
"...So...you found out about your leg, did you?" asked the girl. Mayu thought for a second that the girl sounded sympathetic, but then the thought was gone and Mayu began to speak.  
  
"Yes..." Mayu said faintly.  
  
There was a pause in conversation. The birds had begun to chirp again, but they sounded muffled, far away.  
  
Mayu felt a question pushing to the front of her mind. It had been a question she longed to ask.  
  
"...When you were a butterfly, why did you hurt Mio's hand like that?" Mayu asked, tears filling her eyes as the memory began to surface in her mind. She remembered Mio's terrified screams, the trickles of blood dropping from her hand, her eyes wider than they had ever been—  
  
"I share my pain with others. It makes my unhappiness go away for a while..." said the girl. She sounded distant, as though she didn't really care about what Mayu was asking.  
  
Mayu felt like the temperature had gone down several degrees. She was suddenly very cold and her breath felt heavy with the moisture and chill in the air.  
  
"Are you saying..." Mayu began weakly, "that it makes you happy to hurt people?"  
  
Inside the house, Mio's eyes opened. She sat up. She felt very cold. Had Mommy turned off the heater last night? Mio doubted it. Why would Mommy do that?  
  
Mio got up and dressed herself. She peered outside her window.  
  
There was Mayu.  
  
Talking to a butterfly on a tree trunk.  
  
A crimson butterfly.  
  
Why? Why did Mayu like the thing that had left a permanent scar on Mio's right hand?? Why wasn't Mayu afraid?  
  
Mio began to sob. She felt as though her sister told the butterfly to leave that painful scar on Mio's hand. Mayu had told the butterfly to leave those horrific memories of wretched voices and terrifying images in Mio's head. I saw you smile, Mio thought. I saw you smile when tears fell down my cheeks.  
  
"Don't you like me anymore, Mayu?" Mio wondered aloud, crying.  
  
"Yes, Mayu," the girl whispered. "Hurting others makes me happy."  
  
Mayu just stood there, in the grass, petrified with fear. This girl, her so- called friend, had purposely hurt Mio. And the girl had thought it was something to smile about.  
  
So she had made Mayu smile, too.  
  
"You made me smile when I didn't want to. You made me follow you really far into the woods when I didn't want to. You're a very mean and bossy person and I don't want to be your friend anymore!" shouted Mayu.  
  
The girl only smiled.  
  
"You see Mayu," the girl began. As she spoke, thick black fog began to gather at Mayu's heels. "You have no choice but to be my friend. I will force you. We will be twins. Have you not noticed how alike we look?" The girl's voice became a whispery hiss. The black fog began to surround Mayu. She began to whimper as she looked around wildly.  
  
"You and I will become one. You will feel what I feel, see what I see, hear what I hear. Each day, I will lead you farther into the forest and bring you closer to our secret village. And one day, a few years from now—"  
  
The girl paused as Mayu thrashed her arms around, trying to escape the suffocating black fog.  
  
"—you will finally reach our village and though your true sister Mio will follow...in the end...I will be your only sister."  
  
Mayu collapsed in the black fog with those last words ringing in her head: "I will be your only sister." 


End file.
